BlogWorldExpo 08: Affiliate Marketing Secrets for Bloggers
I was looking forward to attending this panel despite knowing that I probably knew all there was to know on this subject, because I knew two of the panelists. Boy was I wrong – it just goes to show you that there’s always something new to be learned when attending trade shows! The panel consisted of:
- Shawn Collins, Co-Founder, Affiliate Summit
- Mike Allen, CEO, Shopping-Bargains.com
- Tim Jones, Blogger, TheRealTimJones.com
I was proud of the boys – despite having a crowd of general noobs to affiliate marketing they did an excellent job and really threw out some solid information.
Bullet Point Review!
- Blended ads look nicer and work better.
- PopShops has a WordPress plugin that’s super easy to use.
- Remember to work the ads in creatively.
- Think and plan for the long term.
- Your blog is your brand.
- Be the expert.
- Share your space.
- Affiliate marketing is a great start but doesn’t stop there.
- Be careful – advertising the wrong way can tarnish your image.
- Think like a business and set goals.
- Craft a business plan and follow it.
- Look for other retail opportunities (your own affiliate program?)
- There’s lots of opportunity for creativity.
- Most people don’t know it’s an affiliate link and most don’t care (when using text links).
- .htaccess redirect helps clean links up – fairly simple process.
- 50%+ of subscribers come by email.
- Utilize social media to build readership and establish yourself as an expert.
- People have to get there before they can click.
- MaxBlogPress, OpenX are good free ad serving plugins.
- Ninja Affiliate 1.5 is a paid plugin that automatically ads contextual links to keywords you enter in.
- Peel away ads (page ears) also work well
- Target your ads to your audience.
- Yahoo! Answers works well to help establish yourself within your niche as an expert.
- Don’t venture too far outside your niche. You want to upsell and compliment your blog.
- The first thing you’d do? Tim says sign up with the affiliate networks. Shawn suggested doing a Google Search to get a feel for your competition. Mike advises to make sure your site works and that content is up before applying for the affiliate programs – the merchant has to want you.
- Spend the $10 on a domain & it’ll get over the first threshold when affiliate managers review your application.
I don’t have any notes from the Q&A portion of the panel because a lot of it was specific to those bloggers asking the questions – they wanted to know specifics. Personally I don’t think a Q&A session is really the time for that but I understand the desire for people to take any opportunity they can get to ask a question of an expert!
Read MoreOnline Marketing Glossary: Manual Approval
Manual Approval:
- An affiliate application approval process where all applicants are manually approved for an affiliate program.
This is the method I personally subscribe to since I prefer to look at the affiliates first to determine their quality level before clouding up the program with possibly bogus affiliates. I had an interesting conversation with Brad Waller back in August at the Affiliate Classroom LIVE event about manual vs. auto approve and he made the good point that it all depends on what your goals with a program are. For some, manual approval might be cumbersome if there is a large demand for the program but a small staff. It’s really something to be determined on a case-by-case basis.
____
Glossary Definition From ABC’s of Online Marketing by Alexandra Wharton, Issue 22, Revenue Magazine
Online Marketing Glossary: Domain Name
Domain Name:
- Controlled by the worldwide organization called ICANN, domain names are obtained on a first-come basis and are used to identify a unique website.
Okay in plain English, the main part of the URL between the www. and the .com (or .net, .org, etc.) is the domain name. So for this blog, trishalyn is the domain name. There are a lot of different companies that offer domain name registration that are connected with ICANN. One of the biggest ones is GoDaddy.
____
Glossary Definition From ABC’s of Online Marketing by Alexandra Wharton, Issue 22, Revenue Magazine
Online Marketing Glossary: Browser Helper Object
Browser Helper Object:
- A DLL module designed as a plug-in for the Microsoft Internet Explorer Web browser to provide added functionality. Some modules enable the display of different file formats not ordinarily interpretable by the browser.
I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a FireFox user primarily and I have no idea what this means. Anyone? Bueller… Bueller?
____
Glossary Definition From ABC’s of Online Marketing by Alexandra Wharton, Issue 22, Revenue Magazine
Online Marketing Glossary: Sponsored Listing
Sponsored Listing (also Paid Listings or Paid Sponsors):
- A term used as a title or column head on search engine results pages to identify paid advertisers and distinguish between paid and organic listings.
On Google, these are the links highlighted by yellow on the top of the page and the right side that say “Sponsored Links” above them. These are the links that are the results of search engine marketing and pay per click campaigns.
____
Glossary Definition From ABC’s of Online Marketing by Alexandra Wharton, Issue 22, Revenue Magazine
CJU Course: Innocent Until Proven Guilty
his is the last of my notes, finally! This panel promised to deliver real live examples from advertisers and publishers who have faced the best practices issues and discovered the resolutions that helped both sides continue a successful working relationship. The panel consisted of:
- Brian Conchuratt, Sr. Sales Manager, Commission Junction (Moderator)
- Matt Earls, Sr. Marketing Manager, Yahoo!
- David M. Lewis, CEO & Founder, Cashbaq
- Kurt Lohse, CEO & Founder, Keycode.com
- Maggie Tucker, Manager of Performance Marketing, Intercontinental Hotels Group
I didn’t get many notes from this session, but it was some good stuff.
Bullet Point Review!
- 2009 is the year of the data feeds.
- CJ is listening to publisher complaints about data feed accuracy and uniformity.
- Threshold of quality needs to be raised on CJ so advertisers can take advantage of IT resources effectively when asking for the creation of data feeds.
- Utilizing data feeds is top priority for the top publishers.
- Advertisers wonder if anyone’s listening? Always looking for better ways to speak to publishers.
- Understand what your core publishers need. Give them exactly what they want.
- Lead time is good to make it easy.
- Don’t mark offers urgent if they’re not – publishers need to appropriate their time wisely.
- Understand how your publishers want to communicate, whether it’s IM, email, phone, etc.
- It’s difficult to write one email for all publishers.
- -> Don’t worry about flashy templates, data is the most important aspect.
- -> Segment to different publisher groups and address their needs.
- Keycodes white labels their syndicated content.
- Publishers should tell the advertisers straight out if they develop a new promotional method.
- The higher the trust level, the more aggressive you can be with payouts.
- Look at click-through URLs, conversion rate, cancellation rates.
- -> Not looking for secret recipe, but just a general idea of what the publisher is doing.
- Good publishers are looking to be transparent and will let you know when they’re experimenting.
- Violation of T&Cs us more of an opportunity to start a conversation than to punish.
- Affiliates are direct marketers.
- Run the numbers before you go to publishers with unappealing offers or news to prove it’s necessary.
There was no time for Q&A on this panel, but there are definitely some good take away tidbits. This concludes all my notes from CJU! Until next year…
Read More
